Bihar police has another shake-up following Dalelchak-Baghaura massacre

Bihar police has another shake-up following Dalelchak-Baghaura massacre

For reasons of political expediency, the Bihar police has had another shake-up following the recent caste massacres.

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Farzand Ahmed

July 31, 1987

ISSUE DATE: July 31, 1987

UPDATED: January 3, 2014 10:53 IST

Much of the starch has gone out of their uniform. Following the Dalelchak-Baghaura massacre, Bihar's policemen, pressured by repeated caste carnages, once again find themselves victims of a political witch-hunt. Many heads have already rolled and many more may roll soon. The touted reason: toning up the administration. The actual reason: political expediency.

Bihar's experienced director general of police (DGP) S.B. Sahay has been stripped of his post and shifted to a strange assignment - chairman, Sports Authority. The post of inspector general of police (law and order), which was created last year, has been scrapped and its incumbent L.V. Singh transferred to the obscure post of inspector general of police (provisions).

Dubey

The young superintendent of police (SP) of Aurangabad district, Satish Chandra Jha, in whose area the Dalelchak-Baghaura massacre took place, has been shunted as commandant (home guards), Patna, and if the police grape-vine is to be believed, much worse is in store for him.

The force's only consolation was that Chief Minister Bindeshwari Dubey replaced Sahay with S.N. Roy, widely respected in the force as a capable officer with vast experience in crime and intelligence. Dubey also created three new posts of DGP, to accommodate the powerful old guard which wanted the plum police chiefs post, but turned the department top-heavy in the process.

Sahay

These included: DGP (home guards), DGP (Bihar Military Police) and DGP (civil defence), which was to carry the designation of commissioner, civil defence (Earlier this post was held by an IAS officer). But, soon after, in a whimsical action, the post of DGP (military police) was reduced to its earlier status of IG's level.

A new post of DGP (vigilance) was also created. Strangely, the Government revived the post of deputy inspector general of police (Naxalites), that was abolished only last year.

That politics clearly was behind the shake-up could not be concealed. Senior police officials even suggest that the exercise was carried out to appease the powerful Rajput lobby. They point to the case of Jha, who, they believe, suffered because he had antagonised the Rajput lobby in the Congress(I).

Roy

He had refused to arrest Ram Naresh Singh alias Lootan Singh, a Janata Party leader and Rajput-strongman, under the Crime Control Act, though the then Aurangabad collector. Jogendra Prasad, had told him to do so in writing.

The letter, dated May 1, 1987 - and marked 'top secret' - stated that Lootan Singh be arrested as this was the 'desire' of the chief minister. Jha, however, wrote back saying there was not enough ground to arrest Singh under the Act and the "mention of the honourable chief minister in your letter was unnecessary and uncalled for".

Evidently, the Congress(I) leaders have not forgotten the slight. Jha was not even allowed to meet Home Minister Buta Singh and explain the situation when he visited Aurangabad. The fact that Jha had intimated police high-ups - as also the chief minister's office - about the tension building up in the area at least 20 days before the May 29 massacre, also has been deliberately pushed under the bureaucratic carpet.

For reasons of political expediency, the Bihar police has had another shake-up following the recent caste massacres.

Even more interesting is the case of Sahay. Barely a month before the massacre, in which 42 perished, Sahay had sent a 15-page analytical note to the Chief Secretary, R. Srinivasan, describing how some politicians in that region had criminalised politics and were inflaming caste passions.

The letter, however, was not received favourably by Congress(I) leaders and was one reason, according to senior police officials, for Sahay's inglorious exit. Sahay's joint effort with L.V. Singh to streamline the police administration also met with little enthusiasm. Even his proposal to strengthen the middle-level force by posting 90 more deputy superintendents of police came a cropper.

Not surprisingly, the morale of the force is on the downswing. Police stations are understaffed and most have no buildings of their own. Criticial policing auxiliaries like jeeps and phones are not available. Poorly trained officers, with political patronage, rule the roost, turning the state, as a senior Congress(I) leader says, into a "daroga raj".

Worse, transfers, most often on caste lines, have become an accepted fact of police life. In the last two and a half years, the average tenure of an SP in a district has come down to a bare six months. Police officials state that it normally takes three to four months for an SP to get acclimatised to a district.

However, by the time he is ready to begin his work he is 'routinely' transferred. Many officers fear that the new police chief, Roy, may also face the same fate as Sahay, if politicians continue with their favourite sport of looking for scapegoats among policemen to atone for their own sins.

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